Dragon Ball Z: The Space Train
By Feraligreater328 and usuallycat
A/N: Tyler told me I can promote my shit here, so please check out my other works! I'm currently on a Destiny 2 kick, so if that sounds good to you, check out Destinytober by usuallycat right here on this website. Thanks in advance, and enjoy this chapter. I loved writing it.
Chapter 4: The Gambit
-The Martial Artists-
Goku groaned as he slowly sat upright, rubbing his head as he blinked his grogginess away. "Oh, man…"
Three faces came into view all at once: Krillin, the picture of concern, some cold-looking blonde lady leaned against the far door, and… his mother. Everything came rushing back to him - Piccolo Jr., the blast from the air vent, the dawning realization that he was meeting his mother.
His head hurt again, less now. Goku stared at her, struggling for words.
"Are you okay, Kakarot?" she asked, softly, hesitantly reaching out to touch his face.
He nodded, mutely, heart crashing in his chest. Finally, he worked up a quiet, "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm okay."
"I hate to interrupt," Krillin said, interrupting anyway, "but what's going on here?"
Gine and Goku looked at each other for a long moment before Gine reached out, offering a slender hand to Krillin. "My name is Gine. I'm Kakarot's mother."
"You have a mom?!" Krillin exclaimed, almost shooting through the roof with excitement as he rapidly shook her hand, much to Gine's obvious delight. "You never said anything about your mom!"
"I-" Goku remembered, again, his mother's heartbreaking plea not to forget her, and his heart clenched in his chest. "I hit my head and I forgot you. My own mother…"
Before he could blame himself, Gine wrapped him up in a hug. Goku closed his eyes. He could hear her heart beating, soft and firm under his ear. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head, at least as best she could with his uncontrollable mess of hair, and nestled her head against him. Goku wound his arms around her, and they sat there for a few quiet moments. With another kiss to the head, she pulled back, one hand on his cheek. "You were just a baby, Kakarot. I don't blame you for forgetting. And… maybe it was a good thing, in the end, if you had a good life because of it. Have you? Had a good life, I mean?"
Goku thought of Grandpa Gohan, of all his adventures and battles as a child, thought of the love of his life, Chi Chi, and of all his wonderful, kind, understanding friends. Maybe if he hadn't hit his head and forgotten, he wouldn't have had a chance to have them. And that thought hurt, made his stomach twist even considering it. Goku nodded once, solemnly. "Yeah. I've had a really good life."
Fat tears spilled down her cheeks as she smiled, laughed wetly. "Good. That's good. That's all we ever wanted for you."
Finally, she removed her hands from him to wipe her tears away. "I can't stay long. I have to get back to my mission. Later, I'll come find you and we can talk more, okay? But I have to get to work. It's more important than ever!"
Goku nodded, chest aching at the thought of her leaving. "As long as you promise to come back."
Gine rose to her full height, pulling her son with her. Then she took his face between her hands, and made him look her right in the face. "I am never, ever letting you go again," she promised, her voice thick and heavy with the weight of her love.
"Then I'll see you later," he said, scrubbing tears from his eyes with his arm.
In one swift movement, Gine removed her cloak, gently fastening it around Goku's broad shoulders. She pulled the hood up over his head to his bemusement, and smiled. "There's someone on this train you need to stay away from. He's short, black hair, probably pissed off. Keep this on, and make sure he doesn't notice you."
Goku nodded. "Okay, I can do that."
"Good," Gine said, relieved. "I promise I'll tell you more later."
She hugged him one more time, a quick, bone-crushing embrace, before heading back towards the air vent. Before she ascended, Gine stopped and looked back at her son. Eyes shimmering with tears, she finally said, "I love you, Kakarot."
And then she was gone.
Goku stood there, barely able to process what had just happened. Krillin came to stand next to him, bumped Goku with his elbow. "Are you okay? That was a lot."
"Yeah," Goku said, sounding like he was a million miles away. "I'm okay."
They both turned when they heard someone clear their throat: the blonde woman Krillin had crashed into earlier. She looked… almost oddly touched, or some other emotion Goku didn't have the emotional intelligence to identify. He and Krillin both stared at her.
"A lot of people in my group want you dead, so… take that however you want," she said, not waiting before she headed out the door at the rear of the car, headed for first class.
Goku scratched the back of his head. "Okay, well, that was ominous."
Krillin was still staring dreamily after her. "Yeah, ominously beautiful."
"Alright, buddy." Goku giggled, and Krillin snapped back to himself, a red blush across his face.
He patted Krillin on the back. Somehow, miraculously, one of the workers descended from above, a litany of drinks in her arms. She was shaken, but dedicated to her job. "Your drinks, sirs. Please do not return to this car. Thank you."
"Sorry!" Goku at least had the good sense to look embarrassed as he and Krillin took their drinks. "Thank you for the drinks!"
Her face was grim as she watched the two of them leave. Goku made sure his hood was up as they headed through the train. Someone was practically screaming in the Business class toilet, making both men hurry just a little bit faster, internally cringing at the thought of what just might be happening in there. "Poor guy," noted Krillin.
They passed someone on the way through the snack car - a short guy with spiky black hair and what looked to be a permanent scowl. He nearly shoved Goku over as he headed past, and Goku caught himself before he said anything, reminding himself that Gine had said to keep his head down until he was in economy.
Krillin glanced back. "You think that's him?"
"I think so," Goku said, throwing one last look over his shoulder. "Come on, let's get back to the others. We need to tell them what's going on."
So they did, heading back into Economy where after a brief shuffle around the mascot's discarded head near the bathroom that nearly toppled both Z Fighters, they were heralded as heroes, passing out drinks to all of their wonderful friends. Chi Chi accepted her tea, still scalding hot, with a kiss to her husband's cheek. "Thank you."
His answering grin threatened to blind the sun itself. Everyone settled back in their seats and had started to enjoy their drinks when finally Yamcha asked, "Hey, where'd you guys leave Bulma?"
Goku looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Bulma?"
"...you guys didn't see her?" Chi Chi asked, setting her cup down. "She went looking for you guys!"
Krillin and Goku glanced at each other, and Krillin shook his head. "We never saw her."
"The train's a straight line," Tien pointed out. "So how did you guys miss her?"
"Oh my GOD, that means she's missing!" Launch gasped, grabbing a frozen Lapis and holding him. "Oh, who would've taken Bulma?"
Goku finally noticed Lapis sitting there. "Oh, it's you again! Nice to see you met my friends!"
Chi Chi dug an elbow into his side, and Goku nodded, refocusing. "We need to tell you guys about what happened while we were getting drinks. And if Bulma isn't back by the time we're done, we'll go look for her. Sound good?"
His wife nodded, picked up her mug, and gestured at Goku. "Let's hear it."
-The Scientist-
Marceau returned to his seat, settling heavily before beginning to speak. "#16. I have information on our primary objective."
Vomi tilted her head as Gebo II leaned in. "What is going on, #19?"
"I have located Son Goku," Marceau said, voice plain and unemotional. "We must determine our course of action to eliminate the target."
"Oh, do you have to?" Vomi asked. Both of the Androids turned their heads to her. She sighed. "I know it's in your programming, boys, but we're on vacation."
"Vengeance never rests, Dr. Vomi," Gebo II said, cracking his knuckles. "#19, we must destroy Son Goku."
That was when Android 18 arrived, standing arms crossed next to their seating arrangement. "So I take it they already told you about-"
"Son Goku, yes," Dr. Vomi interrupted, almost tiredly now. "The boys are talking about how best to go about killing him. I have no qualm with Goku, but boys will be boys, I suppose. What's your opinion, Lazuli?"
Lazuli shrugged. "I don't know. I met him. Seems nice. Don't really give a shit about him, though. I'm just trying to figure out where Sevent- sorry, where Lapis went."
Marceau and Gebo II looked expectantly at Vomi. They both looked itchy under the collar, ready to strike. Vomi pointed at both of them, smiling at her boys. "Okay, but you really, really have to promise to try my pumpkin bread when we get home. You both have to swear."
"I will eat the pumpkin bread," swore Gebo II, "especially if I may kill Son Goku in exchange."
Marceau nodded. "I, too, will eat your pumpkin bread."
That made Dr. Vomi grin at them. "Have fun, boys. Be careful!"
Both Marceau and Gebo II stood and headed for the door, headed for their single cause in life: killing Goku. Vomi sighed. She had tried so hard to reprogram the boys, as she had Lapis and Lazuli, but that damned urge was just so hardwired in. She would have had to lobotomize her sons to scrape every bit of that urge out of them - and that wasn't something that Vomi was willing to do. They'd have fun after they got it off their chest.
"Hey, Vomi," Lazuli broke in, forcing Vomi's gaze up towards the beautiful blonde's face. "I'm gonna go look for Lapis now."
She didn't wait for a response, but did turn back before she left the car, mean-mugging the red-skinned guy before looking back to Vomi. "Be careful. There's something else going on on this train."
Vomi smiled fondly after her daughter.
-The Devil-
Dabura watched the final member of Dr. Vomi's ragtag family leave the train with a wide, threatening smirk that was only overshadowed by the shining evil in his eyes. He dragged those eyes over to Vomi, who had gone back to her magazine, humming thoughtfully as she turned the page.
Quite beautiful, Dabura decided, especially for a human.
He licked his lips as he considered the woman. She was alone, and she was vulnerable.
"Now," he said to himself in a quiet purr, "is the time to interview the perfect host."
-The Mercenaries-
"We have to talk," Vegeta immediately said the moment he saw Nappa heading his way.
The two mercenaries converged on their seats, sitting in-sync across from each other. Nappa cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably. "Well, now my asshole burns. What's up?"
Vegeta side-stepped that first part entirely. "Something's wrong on this train, Nappa. While you were busy committing war crimes in the shitter, I got a call to go up to the Conductor's Car. You know what I found?"
"Conductors?" hedged Nappa.
"Not a single goddamn conductor," Vegeta said. "Not one."
Nappa furrowed his brow, stroking his mustache. "Not a very good conductor car without conductors."
"The point," the other Saiyan ground out, "is that I found two coffee cups, still warm, and no conductors. No one could have gotten past me. Something stinks here."
Nappa nodded at his partner. "It does. Okay, let's keep our eyes peeled for anything… out…" The bag was squirming, and some very uncharacteristic noises were starting to come out. "...of the ordinary - Vegeta, does that sound like-?"
"Nope!"
Both men crowded around the body bag and Vegeta hesitated before quickly ripping the zipper down. All he saw was a blur of bright blue as hands grabbed his collar and he was ripped downwards. A headbutt was delivered right to his nose, and the Prince of All Saiyans made an undignified whimper as he collapsed backwards. Nappa recoiled back as the body bag's inhabitant - a slender woman with bright blue hair - squirmed her way out of it. Rage poured off of her in near-visible waves. "What the HELL is going on?"
Vegeta stared up at her wide-eyed from his spot on the floor of the aisle, and only managed to dumbly ask, "Wh- How did you get in there?"
Her eyes flashed with a level of anger he had never, ever seen before and he was roughly seized by his collar again and promptly handed a second, harder headbutt. If the first one hadn't broken his nose, it was well and truly fucked now. She released him, then sat back down in the seat that had once held the body bag. "You two are going to tell me what the hell is going on here, and if you're lucky, I won't space both of you!"
Vegeta sat up, and swiftly cracked his nose back into place, wincing at a bolt of white hot pain. For some reason, for once, he wasn't even angry. He shoved Nappa over into the seat against the window, dropped into the now-vacated spot and wiped away the nose bleed that the woman had caused.
"...we didn't put you in that body bag," Vegeta started, eyes still glassy from his throbbing nose.
The woman crossed her arms across her chest, silently listening. Nappa stared at his partner in quiet disbelief as Vegeta IV, Prince of the Saiyans, all that good shit, was talking - like a normal person - to a human. "We had another asshole in that bag," the Prince was saying. "A not you guy who we're supposed to be delivering to a giant fucking asshole who's definitely going to kill us both over this."
"Ah, man, come on," Nappa interjected. "Lord Frieza isn't going to kill us over this! C'mon, he asked for us. You know why?"
Vegeta leaned over with one elbow on the table, fist pressed into the side of his skull as he stared Nappa down. "Enlighten me."
"He asked for the best! He asked for the two guys that did the Arlia job!"
Memories of them standing at a woodchipper, shoving bug parts into it, guts and viscera flying every which way, danced into Vegeta's brain unbidden. He raised his eyebrows. "Right."
"So you're saying he asked for pros," Vegeta continued, sarcasm dripping off of every word, "who wouldn't fuck up?"
Nappa raised a finger, opened his mouth to argue, then fell silent. Across the table from them, the Earth woman scoffed. "You two are a couple of fucking tools."
Both Saiyans turned to her.
"We're the best in the business!" Nappa protested. "Lord Frieza's most trusted."
"Then this Freezer guy must be a fucking idiot because all I see is two idiots who managed to lose somebody trapped in a body bag."
"Oh really?" Vegeta managed, sounding incensed. "Alright, let's go through what we went through to get that guy in that body bag in the first place." He began ticking off fingers as he went through the list. "First up: find the Resistance against Lord Frieza. Already a hard task, but we did it because we're fucking pros. Second up, murder everyone in that base, totaling sixteen people. Third up, we put him in a body bag - fighting like a fucking wet cat, by the way - and we got his heavy fucking ass on this train."
"Seventeen."
Vegeta slowly, almost terrifyingly slowly, turned to look at Nappa. "I'm sorry, you said something."
"I said seventeen," his partner reiterated.
Vegeta turned back to the human with a brief, "Hold on just a moment," before him and Nappa began to count back through their kills.
Vegeta and Nappa present: HOW MANY PEOPLE THEY KILLED
(featuring "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder)
They took out the guard first, Nappa racing up the side of a water tower to deliver a powerful haymaker that knocked the guy clear through it and onto the ground.
"One!" said Nappa cheerily.
They pressed on into the base, Vegeta arriving first. He broke out the finger guns and shouted, "Bang! Bang!" as two ki blasts took out two incredibly-underpowered guards in a blast of yellow light.
"Two and three," said the Saiyan Prince smugly.
Nappa blasted through another guard, as he skimmed along the ground, flying to regroup with Vegeta. Face covered in thick, red gore, he announced, "Four!"
As they entered the main area, which was filled with Resistance members just milling about their day, both Saiyans immediately sussed out those closest to their target. "Five guys playing poker," said Nappa, before the duo unleashed hell.
Nappa roared, a Break Cannon blasting from his mouth and incinerating the three that were grouped together. The attack narrowly avoided the rest of the crowd, but demolished the rear wall of the building with vibrant blue ki. The others were Vegeta's, who promptly flew through the chaos and smashed the other two's heads together. Their heads popped like cherry tomatoes from the sheer force, spraying across the room.
"OH GOD IT'S IN MY MOUTH!" they heard in the distance.
While Vegeta was juicing his duo, Nappa saw their target rushing them, and instantly delivered a punch to the face that stunned him, and a driving roundhouse kick that sent him to the ground. Thinking fast, he chucked the other man into a wheelbarrow, then shot a thumbs up to Vegeta, who rolled his eyes.
"Big guy!" recalled Vegeta, zooming past Nappa to wrap a chain around the giant bald man's neck, pulling hard as the guy pulled back, attempting to keep pressure off his neck.
"Big guy," Nappa agreed. Seeing his partner struggling for the kill, Nappa briefly abandoned the wheelbarrow to rip a leg off a nearby chair and impale it through the big guy's chin and out through the top of his head. "Ten!"
They raced for the exit, Nappa cackling as he zoomed the wheelbarrow around obstacles, Vegeta keeping pace with flight. They screeched to a halt in front of the front exit, confronted by - "Three assholes with swords," Vegeta noted.
Nappa flung their target out of the wheelbarrow, using his body to trip the first asshole with a sword, who was subsequently incinerated by another finger gun from Vegeta. "Why is it always fucking swords?" Nappa ground out.
"I mean it's a triad, you would, right?" Vegeta returned, rhetorically.
The second asshole with a sword made an attempt at Nappa, who grabbed the sword's blade and simply yanked it out of his attacker's hands. With a shiteating grin, he flipped it in his hand, caught the hilt, and cut the guy's head off. Then, he chucked it to Vegeta, grabbed the first guy's sword off the ground, and they both stabbed the third asshole with a sword through the neck.
Vegeta cackled as he looked down at the blade. "That was hilarious."
They took a hover vehicle from the group, shoving their unconscious target in the backseat before speeding off into the night. Just when they thought they were away, two more vehicles were up behind them, threatening a PIT maneuver.
"Time for a Galick Gun," Vegeta announced from the passenger seat.
"That's no fun! How about some super duper finger guns?" Nappa asked.
Vegeta considered, then grinned evilly. "That'll work."
Nappa swung the vehicle around as Vegeta flung open his door, raising both hands in finger gun form. "Bang! Bang!" he shouted, both cars catching fire as they were impacted by ki blasts.
Nappa steered them through the spin and they accelerated, vehicles smoldering in the rapidly-fading distance. Vegeta laughed. "Fourteen and fifteen!"
"And the prick on the hoverbike!" Vegeta said as they slammed on their brakes.
Their last tail flew over them, the rider coming off his bike before the bike itself crashed into him and exploded. "See, sixteen! I was right."
Nappa grinned. "You forgot that one asshole that came over to help."
"What the fuck are you-"
Some local ran over to the wreck of the cars they had disabled, perhaps to check on the drivers - and was promptly incinerated by a massive explosion.
Final count: seventeen!
"Shit," said Vegeta, slumping against his seat. "You know what, that doesn't count. That wasn't our fault."
Nappa patted his back. "Sometimes we just have to take responsibility for our own actions, man."
The human woman stared at them in disbelief. "You two are fucking psychos."
Vegeta whipped around, forearms on the table between them as he leaned in towards her. She mirrored him. Then he grinned. "And you're still sitting here, so what the fuck are you?"
-The Conductors and the Demon-
Pui Pui wheezed a sigh of relief as he faintly heard Vegeta and Nappa down below in Business Class. They had gone undetected, and hopefully that meddlesome Saiyan Prince was none the wiser as to the glorious Lord Frieza's involvement in this particular venture.
Cui grumbled from the corner, arms crossed. "I suppose you're expecting me to say you're right."
"I am not," Pui Pui replied, just grateful to be alive.
Cui sneered at him, ready to launch into a hateful tirade when the door to the luggage compartment opened, and through it stepped a large, green man in a turban and a cloak. Cui spluttered loudly. "You! Passengers are not permitted in the upper level! Are you a stowaway? Give me your ticket, now!"
"Cui," Pui Pui warned quietly, watching the green man's face contort into a snarl, "quit it. We don't have time for this. Just let it slide."
That was a mistake. Cui rounded on him, practically frothing at the mouth as he jabbed a finger into Pui Pui's chest. "Have you no shame? No class? No couth? This… this thing is a stowaway lurking in the luggage compartment of the great Lord Frieza's personal space faring bullet train and you want to - what - ignore it and let it get away with this? No, you fool! You imbecile. Get that thing's ticket or consider yourself spaced!"
"Do it yourself." Pui Pui's voice had no tone, no inflection, nothing. It wasn't even resigned.
Cui blinked, as if that was the most surprising thing in the universe. He gritted his teeth. "Fine!"
Then Cui whirled back to face the green interloper, and Pui Pui promptly pulled his gun from its holster and fired five shots into Cui's back. Cui grasped at his chest, wheezing and gurgling as he staggered forward, desperately trying not to fall to his knees. "You- You- You…"
Finally, Cui fell forward through a vent in the floor with a solid crash. Pui Pui stepped over, and glanced at Cui's bleeding and broken form in the business class bathroom, eyes watering as a lingering stench washed up towards them. "Ugh."
Then he turned to the green man, who was watching with vague amusement. Pui Pui offered his hand to the interloper. "I didn't see anything."
"Neither did I," the man agreed, and they clasped hands briefly before Pui Pui headed towards the back of the train and the green interloper headed for the sleeping car just ahead.
-The Lurkers-
"That was some pretty quick thinking," the man formerly in the body bag noted. He hadn't exactly gotten a chance to stretch before being shoved back into an enclosed space - now the air vent - and his back was really feeling it. He groaned as he got it to pop, and his neck, too.
Raditz nodded once. "Had to get the job done, right?"
"Gotta do what ya gotta do," agreed the man, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. "Pass me your communicator."
Raditz did, and the man held it in front of him, messing with the device. Raditz furrowed his brow. "What're you doing?"
He glanced at Raditz, then pressed the communicator to his ear. "I'm calling the boss."
